


Reunion

by misshoneywell



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, School Reunion, Second Chances, Tumblr: promptsinpanem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26737612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misshoneywell/pseuds/misshoneywell
Summary: Katniss Everdeen, now a successful musician, reluctantly returns home for a high school reunion and second chances.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 31
Kudos: 230





	Reunion

“I’m not going.”

“Um, yes. You are.”

“This is why you called me over here at the crack of dawn? No, sir.”

“To hell you aren’t. We’re a package deal, understand? You’re contractually obligated to go where I go.”

Katniss leveled him with laser eyes and plopped her cup onto the counter. “We’re not on an Everdair tour or doing promotion, Finn. The rules of show business do not apply.”

“Okay, but what about the rules of _friendship_?” His eyes, large and as green as sea glass, blinked at her beseechingly. “Are you really gonna put me through this alone?”

“Oh, please. Don’t even. This is a choice. Why would you willingly put yourself through that?” She shook her head at him. “You wanna go back there so badly?”

“Oh,” Finnick scoffed, bracing his hands on the counter and using the leverage to jump onto the surface. She jerked her hand backward when he almost landed on her fingers, and he smiled at her winningly. “And you don’t?”

“No.” She gave him a look that suggested he had an inhaled excessive amount of crack in his life. 

“Oh.” _Jab_. “Really.” _Jab_.

“Ow,” she grumbled, rubbing her arm. He ignored her muttered complaint and poked her again, though a little more softly. 

“There’s not even the smallest part of you that wants to show these people up?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically.

“No,” she replied. “I’m twenty-eight and a little more mature than that. High school is long over. There’s no one I need to impress.”

“Not even, like, Glimmer Paladino? It would be fun to rub her face around in our success, maybe.” His voice was deceptively casual, like he hadn’t had a crush on that snob once upon a time, when he was bigger boned but less thick skinned.

“Psh.” Katniss picked up her glass of juice and raised it to her lips. “I haven’t worried about her in years,” she said. “And neither should you.”

“Peeta Mellark, then.” He looked at her appraisingly. “And Cashmere Clark.”

It was an unfortunate coincidence that the glass in her hand slipped onto the floor, juice splattering over the blue tiles. She cursed when the glass shattered as well, little shards spraying everywhere. 

Finnick stared at the mess in silence. She dared him to say anything as she pulled a hand towel out of one of his drawers. 

“Well,” he finally said, clearing his throat. “That was crystal.”

* * *

“So,” Finnick drawled later. “I booked us a flight out of LA on Friday morning. Did you know that Panem has an actual airport now? We can bypass the nightmare that is Charlotte all together.”

“Finn! I freaking swear- I said _no_ ,” she replied irritably, banging her head lightly against the couch. “Do you even try to listen to me when I talk?”

“Oh, I listen.” He sprawled his hand out and analyzed his manicured fingernails. “I just don’t really see the big deal.”

“Really? You were ready to get out of there just as much as me.”

Finnick was bisexual, and while he hadn’t dated very many men, there'd been one or two in high school. He also had immaculate grooming habits, a killer fashion sense, and perfect hair. This was common for somewhere like LA, but growing up in a smaller town had been difficult at times. She couldn’t understand why he would want to go back to a place that had treated them both quite questionably. 

“It had some redeemable qualities...the food. The beach. And I need a break from LA toxicity." He shrugged. "And I’m just curious how everyone else turned out. You’re really not interested? Not at _all_?”

“I said I wasn’t.”

“But actions speak louder than words, don’t they?” he asked. 

Katniss blinked. “I don’t even know what you’re babbling on about,” she replied, picking up the remote and flipping it to a trashy reality show that they were both guilty of loving. 

“The five lonely glasses in my cabinet that are now permanently missing a mate tend to disagree,” he shot back, narrowing his eyes. 

“That was an accident,” she said firmly.

“What about that drunk dial to a certain small town bakery five years ago after that show in Japan? Was that an accident?”

“You swore to forget about that,” she snapped, her face turning bright red as she pulled on her braid in agitation. She had been so certain that Finn hadn’t heard her in one of her weaker moments of the past decade, when she had holed up in the bathroom of their small hotel room and made an extremely expensive, extremely embarrassing international call. 

“I’m so mature,” he mimicked her, a smile growing on his face as she thwacked him with a throw pillow.

“All right.” She lowered the pillow to her lap and squeezed it tightly. “Maybe I still have… certain….issues from back then, but that doesn’t mean I want to revisit them. Literally or figuratively.”

“But maybe that’s exactly what we need to do,” he pushed, his voice as earnest as she’d ever heard it. “I mean, look at our songs, Katniss. Look at our lyrics. You have to admit there’s a certain recurring theme about our pasts. I mean, our first album was all about...”

“Are you seriously trying to spin this as us improving our craft?” she interrupted. 

“Maybe. It might help. The label is expecting another album soon.”

“Oh my god.” She groaned and dropped her forehead onto the pillow. 

“Ah ha!” He pointed at her, his triumph palpable and downright irritating. “I know that groan. You’re caving.”

“We’re really going to our class reunion,” she sighed into the material. “We’re those people now. I hate you.”

“Save your hate for the Class of 2010,” he said, patting her on the head.

* * *

“It all looks so much smaller.” 

“That’s what she said,” Finnick said cheerfully, ignoring the flick of her fingers on his forehead. He pulled into the parking lot of the ice cream shop that they had visited a thousand times when they were kids.

“I’m being serious.” She couldn’t stop obsessing over how Panem seemed so much...less than it had in her memories. A decade of time and distance had a power that she hoped extended past the town and into people as well. 

Because if she had forgotten that the Dairy Dream was the size of a postage stamp, then why the hell couldn’t she forget about one stupid guy? She’d met hundreds of them since her teen heartbreak. He was an outdated headline, kid stuff. 

_Then why are most of your melodies still inspired by him?_

The chime of the keys still in the ignition pulled her from her thoughts. 

“Not to disturb your existential crisis, but I would really like a Cornflakes Cone in my stomach, like, right now.” Finn snapped his fingers at her and shrugged on his rattiest jean jacket, one long leg out of the car.

“I can tell.” They both pulled on their ball caps in perfect synchrony and shut their car doors. “You couldn’t wait until we got to the hotel, at least? I’m exhausted.”

“Listen, there’s not much that I miss about this village, but the ice cream?” He kissed his fingers and splayed them toward the sky. “Masterpiece. I still have a chubby soul, and my spirit needs to be fed. Then, a beauty nap.” 

“Okay, dramatic.” 

“My hair is greasy as shit and I’m all bloated from airport food.” He checked out the modestly full parking lot and pulled the brim of his hat down low over his eyes. “Do you think anyone will recognize us?”

“You mean, from high school?” Katniss was distracted by the porch swing in the front of the old fashioned ice cream parlor. It used to be a vintage shade of teal, and now it was a fresh, chipper yellow. She kind of hated it. 

He hummed as they approached the building. “I mean, from the radio. And TV. And something called the internet.” 

Her eyes were gonna roll right out of her head some day. “Sarcasm is not attractive.”

“It’s been years and it’s like you still forget that we’re famous now.”

“Because I don’t feel famous.” 

“And yet we are asked for selfies just about every time we go somewhere.” He made a waving gesture toward the door like an eighteenth century gentleman. 

“Let's hope they don’t care about folk music used in Netflix shows and car commercials, then.” 

“Okay, but we _did_ win a Grammy,” Finnick grumbled under his breath, following behind her.

She was immediately struck by the familiar smell of vanilla and vinyl. Funny how something so simple could threaten to bring a weaker person to their knees. She remembered coming here on Saturdays after scrounging up enough money for a basic vanilla cone that melted in ribbons down her wrist when she’d walk back to the Sunny View trailer park.

As a habit, she kept her head turned away from the occupied booths and made a beeline toward the counter. 

“Can I help you?” asked the man behind the register. He was a little more weathered now with dark skin that was lightly lined, but his eyes were still as kind as ever. Otis Redding played softly in the background, an oldies staple in the ancient jukebox that featured as the soundtrack of her formative years. 

“Cinna,” she blurted out, and she was instantly all of twelve years old again. Finnick made a noise of quiet recognition behind her. 

Cinna cocked his head, the soda jerk hat pointing toward the framed dollar on the wall beside him. Then his eyes widened. “Well, all be. Miss Katniss, is that you?”

“It is.” She smiled at him. “It’s been awhile.”

“Too long,” he said, taking his hat off and displaying a head full of tight, heavily silvered curls. “But it sure is good to see you in my little shop.” He nodded next to her, where Finnick had sidled up. “Both of you.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you doing back in town? Visiting your mama?” 

Katniss held onto her smile. No, she would not be visiting her alcoholic mother who regularly hit her up for money, and gossiped to the press several times in exchange for a payday.

“Probably not this time around.”

“We’re here for our high school reunion,” Finnick answered, coming to the rescue. 

Katniss cringed. Hearing it outloud seemed unbelievable, and cheesy, and like such a massively bad idea that she wanted to hop on the next flight out of town and back to LA. 

The bright lights of the shop and the music and the memories were overwhelming. 

She stared down at the ice cream choices while Finnick leaned on the counter and quietly chatted with Cinna, the relaxed slouch of his body showing that he was no longer concerned with being recognized. A quick glance around the place had confirmed that no one was worried about who they were. They weren’t Taylor Swift or Beyonce. 

Rainbow. Chocolate marshmallow surprise. Almond coconut swirl. Raspberry cordial confetti. Cherries, sprinkles, and deluxe nuts. All the things she could never have, once upon a time, but she could buy by the truckload now. 

“Kat? What flavor do you want?” Finnick asked, his brow wrinkling in concern.

“Vanilla,” she said. 

“A classic choice,” Cinna said, scooping the treat into a cone. The door jingled. 

“Daddy!” came a dear little voice behind them. Already, it was making her smile. She loved kids, even if she didn’t really want one of her own. “Please, please. Can I have two rainbow scoops?”

“Hmm. I don’t know, bean. Did you get your math homework done?” teased a deep voice that caused every hair on her body to stand at stark attention, even the ones that she would’ve sworn had been lasered off by some very thorough aestheticians. 

“Daddy! I’m in kinder-garden! I don’t have _math homework_.”

“Okay, okay. Since you’re such a big girl going to big girl school, I guess I have to give you ice cream.”

“Mr. Mellark!” Cinna called over her head. She was gonna die on the spot. “And Miss Mellark! Good to see you this fine evening.”

Cinna handed her the cone. She took it with numb fingers. Finnick looked like a cartoon rendering of a surprised face. It would’ve been funny if she wasn’t half convinced that she was having a heart attack. 

“Finn. Just pay,” she said under her breath.

“Mr. Cinna! Mr. Cinna!” The little girl ran next to Katniss and knocked into her leg, practically jogging in place with excitement. Her face pressed against the glass. “Can I have some rainbow cream?”

“Lila Bean!” Peeta said sharply. He was so close now that she could almost feel the heat of him at her side. “You’re being rude, hon. I’m sorry, m’am, she’s just excit…” His voice trailed off. “Katniss?”

She bit wildly into the ice cream and a sharp burst of unbearable pain hit her sensitive teeth. She stared at the framed dollar bill with watering eyes. She willed herself into ghost mode. She imagined a sheet with holes for eyes gently landing over her head.

“Katniss?” Hesitant fingers touched her shoulder. 

“Daddy, y’know this lady?”

So, she had to take the metaphorical blanket off her head. She could ignore Peeta Mellark, but she couldn’t ignore a child. 

“Yes, that’s daddy’s friend.” The way he lied, with no hesitation! “And hey, Finnick. Good to see you, man.”

“Hi,” Finnick intoned. There was no love lost there. “Cute kid.”

Katniss looked down at the baby doll who was staring at her with frank curiosity. She had wheat blonde ringlets with a poofy bow in her hair and familiar sky-blue eyes. She also had Peeta’s smattering of freckles on her pert little nose, and although she knew that Cashmere Clark was the mother, she couldn’t for the life of her see any distinguishing features on her face. 

Katniss waved her fingers in a stiff arc, like her hands were the sun in _itsy bitsy spider_ , which she immediately knew was weird but she couldn’t stop. 

“Lady, you know my daddy?” the girl grilled like a hardened detective. _There was the Cashmere._

“I do,” Katniss said, stepping out of line. She tugged on the brim of her cap awkwardly. Finnick motioned toward the door with his Cornflakes Cone and grimaced at her in apology. The bastard was leaving her here. 

“Sorry,” he mouthed. And then he was gone. Her phone buzzed. She quickly looked at it. 

_Finnick: Kids freak me out. Stay strong!_

“Well.” She looked up from her phone with a fake smile. Peeta and his daughter had also stepped away to make room for a young couple ordering milkshakes. “My ice cream is melting, but it was so good to see you. And so nice to meet you, Lila.”

“Katniss is going to the big reunion tonight,” Cinna added over his shoulder helpfully. 

She could feel Peeta staring at her. “You are?”

“Yeah, that...it was the plan.”

“Pretty lady,” Lila interrupted, “do you have a quarter for the music box?”

It took her a second to understand. “Oh. Yes.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out several. She dropped them into the girl’s hand. 

“Thanks!” Lila grinned up at her and ran off. 

Otis Redding was still crooning in the background about how he’d _been loving you too long_ and she wanted to smash the jukebox and whoever had paid for back-to-back songs. 

“So. The reunion? I have to stay, I’m surprised,” Peeta said. He was watching his daughter closely even though she was within spitting distance of them. At that moment, Katniss was glad he was a dad, because she didn’t have to make eye contact. 

“Why? Oh, because I pretty much despised everyone who went to that school?”

He laughed softly. “Yes, that.”

Katniss hated how her heartstrings still reacted to his stupid laugh. She had written songs about that laugh.

“Maybe I’m planning on going _Carrie_ on everyone.”

“Oof. I’m allergic to pig’s blood, so I guess it’s a good thing I’m not going, then. 

“Oh.” She was not disappointed. At all. “You’re not?”

“Afraid not. My parents are busy, and I watch way too many true crime documentaries to trust a random babysitter.” 

“How very dad-like of you.”

“I know,” he said ruthfully. “I didn’t—Lila! Don’t climb on the jukebox!—picture being a father this soon, but I love it.” 

Of course he did. Peeta was always meant to be a dad. It’s just that, once upon a time, she thought he would be the father of her kids some day. 

He added, “Being a single father at twenty-eight has its challenges, though. Like missing out on a ten year reunion.” 

Wait, what.

“Hmm.” She was busy wondering where Cashmere was in this equation when he spoke again. 

“Are you disappointed?” He turned to look directly at her for the first time. 

Was she dis...? My god. The nerve of this man! The unmitigated arrogance and gall! Psh. Disappointed? Never. 

She crunched up the last of her sugar cone and calmly wiped her hands on her jeans. “I feel nothing, actually.” 

“Ouch.” Peeta winced. “Okay, that was a dumb question. I don’t really know what I’m doing.” He started speaking urgently, like if he stopped she would disappear. “Look, this is weird. I don’t want this to be weird. I’m putting my cards on the table here because I don’t know when I’ll have another chance.”

He looked around and then wordlessly pointed at the single booth tucked in the corner. For some reason, she sat down with him. None of this was happening the way she had always imagined. 

_Be out in a minute_ , she texted Finnick. 

Peeta played with a straw and watched Lila, who was now at home on a counter stool and talking happily to Cinna about sprinkles. “Seeing you here has put me in a medical state of shock, I think?”

“O-kay.”

“I’ve just been building this up in my head for a long time.” He tapped the straw on the table top like it was a cigar. “I miss you. I asked if you were disappointed because I want you to be. And to miss me, too?”

She stared at him. This was surreal. “You really want to do this in the Dairy Dream?”

“No,” he said hesitantly. “But I’ve been having this conversation in my head with you for a decade and it’s gonna come out whether I want it to or not.” He stopped. “So, I did not mean to make my big speech sound like diarrhea.”

“This is very anti climatic, you know. I’ve had my own speeches with you.”

“You have?”

She gave him a long look. Now he was the one who couldn’t make eye contact. She felt strangely in control. In every scenario where she talked to Peeta Mellark again, she was the exact opposite of what was happening right now. 

“I wrote an entire album about you,” she said matter of factly, watching him squirm. “I’m guessing you know that.”

“I...did. Kind of.” 

“Kind of?”

“I listened to the songs. Logically? I knew it was about us. About me. But it also didn’t feel real? Without talking to you, it seemed impossible. And the longer we didn’t speak, the more far away it all felt. I don’t know. I’m not making sense.”

“I get it,” she said. “It’s probably how I felt when we dated in secret.” 

“I never wanted us to be a secret. That was you.”

“Okay.” She sighed. “This is all history, Peeta. No need to drag it all up again. To be perfectly honest with you, yes, I’ve been...not completely over everything that happened. But talking to you now, seeing you with your beautiful little girl, of course you can’t regret anything that happened when we were kids. Everything happened for a reason.”

His brow furrowed. “Lila? What does she have to do with what happened then?”

She pursed her lips at him. “We were doing really well. There’s no need to play dumb now.”

“I’m not playing anything, Katniss. It was a long day at the bakery and I’m pretty tired, but I’m not that tired. What are you talking about?”

“You and Cashmere.” Just saying it out loud still had the power to hurt her, and it made her angry. 

He blinked several times. “Katniss, there was no ‘me and Cashmere’ then. We started casually seeing each other about six years ago. Casual turned into Lila, who I absolutely do not regret, but she came along far after you and I fell out.” 

“Don’t lie.” She was shaking her head and standing up before her brain fully realized it. “You were with her before we had even fully broken up.”

“Okay, hold on—Lila! Leave Cinna’s spoons alone!—that is not true.” He stood up and gently blocked her exit. “Please don’t leave. Sit down. Why in god's name do you think that?”

She sat. “I saw her leaving your house. At midnight. The next day I heard her say how much she liked…” she stopped and bit her lip. She couldn’t say this to him. 

“What? Liked what?” Peeta urged, voice low. His blue flannel shirt contrasted sharply with his flushed face. He looked equal parts offended and confused, like a dishonored lumberjack. 

She closed her eyes. “Mellark dick.”

He choked and looked over quickly where his daughter was still busy visiting with Cinna. “The hell?” he whispered harshly. “That’s absolutely ridiculous. I did not ever hook up with Cashmere. I mean. Not then, at least.” He rubbed his forehead. “This is a disaster.”

“Why did I see her leaving your house?” 

“I have no idea.” Peeta frowned heavily at her skeptical face. “Seriously. I don’t…” he trailed off and looked sick. “Wait. Unless...god. Hold on.” He whipped his phone out and started furiously texting. A few tense moments passed. 

Then he groaned. She swore he even turned a bit green. 

“I just texted Rye.” He was Peeta’s brother, only a year or so older than them both. He did something in pharmaceuticals in Texas, last she heard. “You’re not going to believe this, but my brother and Cashmere…” He held up his phone so I could for myself.

_Peeta: Got a question, but please be honest. You ever hook up with Cas?_

_Rye: why_

_Peeta: The answer should be a pretty automatic no_

_Rye: sorry man. happened a long time ago. like, high school._

_Rye: way before you ever got in there btw_

“Oh, no.”

“Oh, yes,” Peeta said grimly. “I’m gonna kill him. I mean, it’s old news now, but I would’ve never…it just feels too incestous.” He stopped and looked at her. “That’s really why you stopped talking to me? Why you froze me out and wouldn’t explain why?” 

“It made sense to me then,” she said, shocked by this revelation. “Your parents had been pushing so hard for you to date Cashmere, their best friends’ perfect daughter. You were being distant, and you barely talked to me, and always tried to change the subject when I talked about following you to college.”

He sat back in the booth and stared at her. Now she squirmed. “And that meant I was fucking Cashmere?” 

_Oh, he was very mad,_ she noticed. The situation was spiraling out of her control, and everything she had ever thought and knew was quickly unraveling. 

There was too much happening in this ice cream shop.

“We’d actually started arguing about colleges, remember? I came by that night to work it out. I saw her and...it made sense,” she repeated defensively. 

Peeta leaned forward. 

“I let you keep our relationship a secret back then because I was always scared to push you on hard subjects.” His eyes were so narrowed that the thick top lashes almost touched the bottom ones. “Then I let you go without a fight because I knew you really wanted to be in LA. Yes, I was passive and weak. But I thought I was doing the right thing in my own dumbass teen way.”

Oh no. 

“I’m guilty of a lot of things, but Katniss, cheating on you was not one of them. And I’m pissed off you thought so low of me. We were best friends before we ever thought about dating.” 

“What was I supposed to think? You never talked to me again. And then Cashmere was pregnant, and it all made sense,” she repeated dumbly. 

“Pregnant years later.” He shook his head. “I didn’t talk to you because you made it impossible. You blocked me. Finnick blocked me. We had none of the same friends. You don’t have social media. Then you got famous, and it was even less possible.” His voice lost some of its heat. “I thought you were done with me forever. Didn’t even think you’d kept up with what I was doing or who I was with.”

“I kept up,” she admitted with much difficulty. 

Peeta looked at her the same way she used to stare at math equations. 

Then they were quiet for a long moment. Thriller on the jukebox was not the correct mood music for all of the revelations that had been dropped between them. Remnants of vanilla on her lips suddenly tasted bitter. 

She spoke first. “Well, none of this matters now.”

“How does this not matter?” he asked, incredulous. His irises were just a thin blue ring around black pupils. “It changes _everything_. Our timeline is fucked, Katniss. We let some stupid miscommunication get between us.”

“The fact that it was so easy to mess up means we weren’t that strong to begin with. And it was a decade ago, Peeta. We should just...let it go.”

“Then why did you call me five years ago, if it wasn’t that unimportant?” he asked, looking up at her. 

“A moment of weakness. Nostalgia. You’ll remember that I hung up pretty quickly once I heard the baby crying.”

“Fine,” he said in frustration. Then his face grew determined. “And what about three years ago? One year ago? Three months ago?”

“You knew?” Her heart stopped. She had been careful. She hadn’t said a word, just listened on mute, and waited for him to hang up. 

Peeta nodded slowly. “I suspected. But the number was blocked. Now I know.”

“Tricky,” she whispered. Then she stood. 

“I don’t know why I kept calling. But I promise you, it’ll stop now.”

“Katniss-”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for my part in all of that. You said you were afraid, weak, and passive. Well, I was too reactive. Stubborn and insecure.” She smiled sadly. “Goodbye, Peeta.”

She walked over to Lila, who smiled up at her from her stool and dish of rainbow ice cream, and gave her another handful of quarters. 

And then she walked away. 

* * *

The car ride to the hotel was grim. Finnick tried to get her to talk, but all she could do was silently cry. 

“I’ve never seen you like this,” he said helplessly, patting her knee as he drove. “Should I kill him?”

“No,” she finally said, wiping her cheeks. The rental car came to a stop in the parking lot. “If you kill anyone, it should be me. Oh, Finnick. I got it all wrong.”

“Like what?”

“Everything. I was wrong about Peeta in some pretty spectacularly horrible ways. But it’s too late now.”

“Oh.” He blew out a breath and turned around to rifle through a bag in the backseat. “Well, there’s a bright side to this.”

“I’d love to hear it.”

He tossed a notebook and a pen in her lap. “Write it out. We should at least be able to get some good lyrics out of this.”

She stopped crying and stared at him.

“You’re unbelievable.”

He preened in the rearview mirror. “I know.”

She picked up the pen. “If I write a full song,” she said, “then I get to skip this fucking reunion.”

* * *

She didn’t finish the song. She took a shower, a long nap, and ended up in a flashy red dress that their styling team back in LA had sworn made her look like a goddess. It also cost more than the first paycheck they received as recording artists.

“You look hot,” Finnick said, adjusting his bow tie. He went with a tailored tuxedo, the nuclear choice for impressing past foes. It showed off the fit and toned lines of his body in a way that made it clear how much he had changed since high school. “I’m passable, I guess.” 

She kissed his cheek. “You will blow everyone away with your prettiness.” 

“I can’t wait to see Glimmer Paladino’s face,” he said, smoothing back his bronze hair. “Remember me?” He pointed at the mirror. “You could’ve had all this, baby.” 

“You’re creeping me out,” Katniss said, strapping on her shoes. She fiddled with her braid, the best she could do on her own. “Do not say those things.” 

He crossed his arms and sulked. “I probably won’t even talk to her.” 

“Probably for the best. You were sounding a little 80s revenge horror movie-ish.” 

“I was going for, like, Duckie. The nerd in Pretty in Pink.”

She patted his shoulder. “You tried.” 

He caught her hand and gave her the _I’m Serious_ face. “For real though, are you okay? If you want to stay here, I’ll totally be fine with that.”

“Nah. Peeta won’t be there and...it’s over now. For better or for worse. Let’s go rub some faces in our success.” 

Finnick cheered, and she felt marginally better. 

* * *

“Woah,” Finnick said. Strobe lights lit his face blue and red. “These people are here to party.” 

The reunion wasn’t in their high school gym like movies would suggest. Instead, some trophy wife had sprung for the Panem Country Club. It’s funny how Katniss had always wondered so much about the place as a teenager, and now here she was, wishing she were anywhere else. 

Even with the lighting, she recognized pretty much everyone with just one, sweeping glance across the room. It was a disconcerting thing, feeling all of seventeen again. 

“Hey!” 

They both turned and saw Madge Undersee, former class president and one of the few people who didn’t treat Katniss like an outcast. 

“Yay. Someone I don’t hate,” Katniss said, her hands together in the prayer position. 

Finnick covered Madge’s ears. “Please forgive this wild animal’s lack of social skills. How’re you, Madge?” 

“Good. I’ve been practicing law for a couple years now. Hoping to make junior partner next year at the firm.” 

“That’s amazing. I’m so impressed.” 

“It pays the bills,” Madge said, tucking a strand of her sleek bob behind her ears. “But compared to you guys! Wow, Everdair. Your stuff is great. I listen to it during my commute.” 

“Glad you like it. You should come to one of our shows,” Finnick said, turning his charm to full blast. “Come backstage, hang out.” 

Calm-and-collected Madge was looking a bit flustered now. “Really?” 

He slung an arm around her. “Of course. We’d love to have you.” 

He casually glanced over his shoulder not once but twice before turning his attention back to Madge. When Katniss followed the trajectory of his eyes, she almost groaned out loud. 

Holding court by the drink station was Glimmer Paladino. 

It would be dramatic to call her a nemesis. She wasn’t that. She wasn’t really a bully, either. Bitchy would be the most accurate term. Snide little remarks, condescending looks, and often just pretending neither one of them existed from kindergarten to twelfth grade. There are many ways to be cruel without direct action, and Glimmer had been great at them all. 

Of course, she was also one of the most beautiful girls in school other than Cashmere Clark, who happened to be one of Glimmer’s good friends back in the day. 

She didn’t feel like dealing with Glimmer Paladino.

“I’m going to the sushi station,” she told them. 

She was just popping a spicy tuna roll into her mouth when it happened. There was a hesitant tap on her shoulder. 

“Hey, Katniss.”

She almost choked on her sushi. “Oh. Hey, Glimmer.”

“I go by Lindsey now, actually.” The other woman’s grimace held a tinge of embarrassment. “It’s my real name.”

“It is? How did I never know that?”

“It’s crazy how you can go to school with one another your whole life and still know nothing about them, right?” Glimmer-now-Lindsey said nervously. “Listen, I have to say something. I was a total douchebag in high school. No excuses for that mean girl stuff other than some pretty cliched things you don’t care about. But...I’ve regretted it for years now.”

“It’s okay,” Katniss said, and found that she meant it. She didn’t have any room in her heart for high school grudges, not anymore. They had lived there rent free for far too long. “No need to explain. I’m over it.” 

“I was actually a really jealous person then.” Her face was beet red. 

“Of...me? That’s hard to believe. I was a total nobody before...you know. Fame.”

“You could never see yourself very clearly,” Lindsey said. It was only then that Katniss noticed the slight slur in her voice. She didn’t remember seeing an open bar. Hell, she would’ve paid any amount of money for a drink when they got there. Katniss discreetly sniffed her own punch, but the spiked stuff must still be a cool-crowd thing. “Seriously, you’ve always been so pretty. And, like, mysterious. It was annoying as hell. So above it all. It drove everyone crazy.”

Katniss pointed at herself. “Me?”

Lindsey rolled her yes, but it didn’t feel mocking for once. “Yes, you. I know it doesn’t make it okay, but you were so untouchable...so unbothered. That was catnip for idiots like us in high school. Made everyone want to ruffle your feathers a bit.”

“Am I supposed to apologize?” 

“Like I said, it’s just a reason. Not an excuse.” 

“Right.”

“And listen, I’m not just saying this because I’m trying to blow smoke up your ass now that, you know, you’re famous. But your music got me through my divorce,” she said.

“You were married?”

“Briefly. To Cato Baxter, a huge mistake as you can imagine. Thought he’d changed, but he was just as big of a dick in marriage as he was in high school.”

“Yikes.” 

“Yeah. Match made in hell,” she said distractedly. She touched her hair, which was darker and more natural than Katniss remembered. “Hey, is that Finnick over there?” 

Katniss may be willing to forgive and forget, but she was protective of her best friend. “Maybe.” 

“God,” the other woman said wistfully. “I had such a crush on him.” 

She was convinced she and Finnick had entered into an alternative universe. “Oh?” 

“It was bad back then. That musician thing, and the swoopy hair, and he was so squeezable.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s still hot of course, just in a different way. I’m sure he’d never look at me twice though.” She tugged at her dress self consciously. “I’m about three sizes bigger than ever.” 

Katniss smiled. A day of revelations, indeed. “Actually, you know what? I think he’d love to hear from you. Just walk over and say hello.” 

“Really?” 

“Yep. Tell him you love track #10 on the Tunnels album.” It was a song all about unrequited love with an unreachable blonde, and for once, it hadn’t been written by Katniss. 

“Well...okay. I will.” Lindsey started to leave but then something caught her eye. “And hey, it looks like someone who wants to talk to you.” She raised her eyebrows and pointed. “Catch you later.” 

Katniss turned around, and there he was. 

Peeta Mellark, in khakis and a soft flannel shirt. A green one, this time. He looked ridiculous in the party lighting. He also looked sexy as hell. 

She walked up to him. 

“I thought you couldn’t get a babysitter.”

He shrugged. “I called Cashmere and asked if she would take Lila for the night even though she had plans. We’re not good together, but luckily we’re on amicable terms with custody arrangements. And she owed me after that shit with Rye,” he said with a shiver. 

“Keeping it in the family. Your mother would be so proud.” 

Peeta gave her a horrified look, and Katniss laughed. “Too soon to joke?” 

“Very,” he said, but he was smiling. 

A song that was popular about twenty years before they graduated started playing, and of course it’s the first slow one she’d heard since arriving.

“Do you want to dance with me?” he asked. His smile was sweet with just a hint of shyness. “Please say yes. Everyone is staring at us, and I’m exhausted, and I need you to hold me up so I don’t fall asleep on the floor.”

“In that case.” She took his hand and followed him to where couples were dancing as if they were in middle school. It was cringey, and awkward, and also kind of great. 

“So, you ran away from me,” Peeta said. 

“I’m bad about that,” she said. “I’m sorry. I was already planning on cornering you at the bakery tomorrow.”

He paused, and they stopped their slow spinning. “You were?” he asked in amazement. “I showed up ready to drop to my knees and grovel.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Peeta. Pretty much all of this is my fault. I’m so embarrassed and mad at myself. I left Dairy Dream pretty convinced I don’t deserve your friendship again.”

“We both made some mistakes. Let's chalk it up to being dumb kids," he said softly. "But Katniss, I really don’t want your friendship.”

Her heart dropped. _Fuck_. “Oh.”

“God, that’s not what I meant. I would be your friend. I mean, I am your friend.” Peeta stopped dancing again and rubbed his eyes. They had dark shadows underneath them. “Can we go outside and talk? Please?” 

She looked across the dance floor and saw Finnick talking to Glimmer-no, _Lindsey_. He was smiling down at her with pink cheeks. Madge didn’t look too disappointed. She was in a dark corner with Gale Hawthorne, someone she vaguely remembered as a baseball player. 

Everyone was making their play, and it was time for her to do the same. She was ten years late, after all. 

She followed him outside. They found a bench strung with fairy lights overlooking a pond. 

“I just want to make it perfectly clear that I am in love with you,” Katniss said simply. An autumn leaf fell onto Peeta’s shoulder, and he was motionless while she plucked it away. It was both the hardest and easiest thing she had ever said in her life. “I always have been.” 

“I know I should be saying something really romantic,” he said eventually, “but I'm pretty speechless right now. Can I just say ditto and kiss the hell out of you?” 

“I wish you would.”

His lips were on hers before she had finished speaking, soft and perfect and just as she remembered. She already knew the melody she’d write in honor of this moment, the lyrics writing themselves while he slowly stroked her tongue with his. 

“Get a room!” someone called good-naturedly from a shadowy path to their right. Someone else whistled and laughed before they hustled off, likely to do some covert making out of their own. 

She was practically panting when they pulled apart. 

“I’ve been waiting years to do this again, and they’re rushing me?” Peeta ran his hands through his blonde curls. “Cretins.”

“We could, you know,” Katniss said, adjusting the neckline of her dress. 

“What?” Realization dawned on his handsome face. “Oh!”

“I have a room.” She clasped his fingers. “I’m not ready to let you go yet. Please put your babysitter to good use and come back with me.” 

“So,” Peeta said, visibly collecting himself. “I would love to take you back to your hotel and, just, absolutely rail you." He dropped his forehead to hers before pulling back again. "But the truth is, I’m a boring dad. This is the latest I’ve stayed up in five years. When I’m not waking up early for work, I’m looking after Lila. Every bit of my energy tonight has been devoted to keeping my eyes open. Even right now, when I don’t wanna miss a single second with you.”

"Wow," she said with mock-sadness. "You mean to tell me you're an actual adult? With responsibilities? How lame of you."

He exhaled and looked at her. "I am very uncool, Katniss." 

“Peeta Mellark,” she said, her lips twitching. She tapped him on the bridge of his nose. “Will you come back to my room and fall asleep with me? And wake up and talk about our future? And figure out how we make this thing work as adults? Finally?”

“God, yes.” He kissed her again, just because he could. “A thousand times, yes.”

He took her hand and led her away. One day, they’d have a wedding reception at this club. Lindsey and Finnick would be in their wedding party. They’d split their time between LA and Panem, but this would be their home-base, because Lila and the babies needed stability when their mom wasn’t on tour. One day, after the kids grew up, Peeta would join her and they would travel the world together. 

But that was another day. 

“Can I get a raincheck on railing you, by the way?” Peeta said as they turned the corner, and her answering laugh followed them well into the night. 

**Author's Note:**

> For Kristin aka Baronesskika, a previous member of the THG fandom who tragically passed away. If possible, please consider making a donation to her family (details are on the @promptsinpanem tumblr). 
> 
> As always, thanks for reading. Please excuse any mistakes, as this is one of the quickest one-shots I've written.


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